Carol Moseley Braun, the first Black woman ever elected to the United States Senate, has released her long-anticipated memoir, Trailblazer: Perseverance in Life and Politics, which hit shelves on June 24.
The new book chronicles her remarkable journey as a history-making force in American politics and public service.
Published by Hanover Square Press, the memoir traces Braun’s rise from her modest beginnings in segregated Chicago to her historic election to the U.S. Senate in 1992 — a victory that shattered racial and gender barriers and inspired generations of Black women in politics.
“Born into a family with a history of civil rights activism and military service dating back to the Civil War, Moseley Braun talks about her childhood in racially segregated Chicago to the present, including marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., running for president as the lone woman in a field of men, and fostering surprising friendships throughout her storied career, from Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton,” reads the publisher’s synopsis.
Braun’s legacy extends beyond the Senate chamber. She was also the first Black person elected to an executive office in Cook County, Illinois, and later became the first U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand.
Through Trailblazer, Braun revisits her years of service at every level — local, national, and international — sharing hard-won lessons about leadership, representation, and perseverance.
In a recent interview with NPR, Braun reflected on her unique position in the Senate:
“I was kind of the duckbill platypus of the Senate in the sense that I was not only a woman, I am Black, too. So you put those things together. And what you have is a set of expectations that border on the unreasonable… I did my very best to live up to those expectations. But it was not always possible.”
Braun’s memoir arrives at a critical moment, as national debates intensify over the erasure and misrepresentation of Black history in American institutions. For many readers, especially Black women and aspiring public servants, Trailblazer is not just a memoir — it’s a roadmap and a reaffirmation of legacy.
Though she made history more than three decades ago, Braun remains the only Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate — a fact that still astonishes many.
“This is a fun Black History Month reminder that there’s been one Black female US Senator ever — Carol Moseley Braun,” comedian Guy Branum posted in a widely shared tweet.
Braun’s story is full of resilience, pioneering ambition, and political acumen.
